Writing a motivational letter for a Bachelor of Business Administration program
Previously I explained how I wrote a motivational letter for a Master program in engineering and a motivational letter for a scholarship.
A person who has a bachelor degree in engineering, natural sciences, or any other sciences has a field of interest or at least a subject which he likes the most. So, in this case, the person has at least an idea or a path, in which he must write the letter.
Those people who are planning to apply for a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) are in totally different situation: there is simply nothing to write about. Applying to the business administration program implies that you will apply the obtained knowledge in a business, but not all families have their own businesses, and in this case, it is quite challenging to come up with a topic for the motivational letter.
Because the idea of the letter changed, the structure changed as well. Now the letter is divided into the following parts:
- A hook;
- A long term goal;
- An intermediate targer;
- Why decided to study abroad;
- Belief that you will succeed in studying;
- Why you applied to this university;
- Conclusion.
You can see that the structure is more complicated and the motivational letter is longer than the previous ones.
A hook
Here are a few topics which you can think about and write a simple motivational story or just your opinion:
- Your family business: why is it bad and how you want to improve it;
- A successful international corporation whose success motivated you to create something;
- Some problem in any location which you want to solve (starvation, murders, crisis, depression, ...);
- A simple quote of a businessman with your opinion about it (wheather you agree with it or not);
- Your passion (activity or object) and how much you want to create a business, which will help people to experience those great emotions that you experience.
In my opinion, the "quote" topic is the easiest and, at the same time, very effective one. It can show your mindset, knowledge, and expertise in some field of business.
Unfortunately, I didn't know any quotes of famous businessmen which I could use in the motivational letter, so I googled it for about a half an hour (yes, apparently it is not the easiest task) and found the one of Robert Kiyosaki:
Many people start a business only to make money. Just to make money is not a strong enough mission.In my opinion, it is a very interesting deep quote and at the same time suites the spirit of any university. Most of the time universities don't like if a student's motivation to study is only earning a lot of money. In this case, it is possible to show that even though money is extremely important, it is not everything. It makes an impression that the applicant thinks further and deeper than simply about the income.
A long term goal
A long term goal is usually a big and, almost always, unsolvable problem, which worries a lot of people: in my case it is poverty, hunger, and unemployment. This section is the continuation of the previous idea, that the applicant is interested in serious problems and not only in money. It also shows that the person can analyze the situation and draw reasonable conclusions.
An intermediate targer
A huge unsolvable problem is very good, but everybody understands that it is unsolvable or almost unsolvable. So, it is of the most importance to reduce this huge goal either to a step of easier problems, or to a subproblem, which partly solves this problem or just in a small region.
The purpose of these two sections are to show your ambitions in global problems, but at the same time to demonstrate that you are able to think deep and analyze by concentrating on a smaller problem, because common sense and objective assessment of your capabilities are crucial skills for a business administrator. If the leader can not sensibly estimate a situation, then he is a fool, and most likely will not succeed.
In my case, I reduced the problem of hunger, poverty, and unemployment to improving lives of people in need by creating a big international company. I also added a few sentences about how the university can help me to do it.
There is also another trick here. As you could notice, I used specific subjects: “The European Business Environment”, “Asian Economic Development”, “European Economic Development” from the program's syllabus. It was done on purpose, because it shows that the applicant made a thorough research on the university's website to understand if the program suits his interests or not. Most of the time universities appreciate the fact that you studied their website and all their documents: it shows that your decision was meaningful, based on the knowledge, rather than a spontaneous haste in order to be accepted anywhere.
Why did you decide to study abroad
This part is an easy one. But it's necessary to provide serious reasons: "because I don't like my country and I want to immigrate" is definitely not a reason you want to mention (even though it can be the only thing that motivates your actions).
I will repeat again, the most important idea. Truth is necessary with your friends a family. In the outer world you must know how to represent yourself so other people think you are smarter than you are, more reliable than you are, and in general -- better than you are.
In my motivational letter I divided this part into two subparts:
- The evaluation of local universities and their programs;
- The evaluation of possibilities that will open to you if you study in the university with elements of flattery.
The first part is obvious and I will not even talk about it. On the other hand, the second part is not so obvious at all, and it requires a thorough thinking to write it. Again, the idea is to show your long-term thinking and analysis of serious questions.
One of the most important things to perform is a "flattery". Without a doubt, everyone loves to hear good things about themselves. So, you must try to flatter as much as possible, but at the same time represent it in such a way, which doesn't let the readers think that you are flattering at all. So, your flattering must be logical, reasonable, and moderate.
Belief that you will succeed in studying
Whenever you do anything, you must have a positive thinking about what you are doing: if you don't believe in your success, it will never happen. Write about how much you believe in achieving everything and even more. Prove that based on your experience, knowledge, and hard working abilities you will overcome all problems and difficulties.
And again, by accepting the difficulty of your intentions, you prove that you sensibly estimate your goals and, therefore, you are a smart and mature person. The secret is in what and how you write.
Why you applied to this university
This is the longest, extremely important and one of the most difficult sections of the motivational letter. For each university this section will be totally unique, but the idea of this section is to show why you think this university suits exactly you and why not any other university: provide examples of your research about the
- University (why the university is so good: strong science program, program that you need, qualified professors, internships, society);
- Location (why you want to live in this particular location: beautiful, clean, safe, quite);
- People (maybe you like people's mentality: friendly, supportive, thoughtful);
- Traditions (celebrations, events);
- Religion (the religion of your preference is prevailed in the area);
- Food (you like the local cuisine);
- Lifestyle (quite and slow lifestyle or, on contrary, noisy and active);
- Quality of life (developed country/city/area);
- Hobbies (the city and people allow you to develop the hobbies you are interested in);
- Opportunities (a lot of companies, startups, and other opportunities where you can take part in).
In my case, I mentioned four points: accreditation (the education is recognized in the USA and Europe), improvement of language skills (improving German language skills) and those skills which are necessary for a business (team work and leadership skills), quality of the city (frequently ranking among the world’s most livable cities).
Conclusion
The conclusion is nothing more, but final words about how the university is perfect, how many opportunities it will give you, and how much you want to study there.
Now you have a complete motivational letter, which shows your knowledge, explains your passion for studying, why you want to be accepted to this university on the program you applied for, and that you are a reliable student who is interested in serious topics.
Letter of Motivation to UIBS Zurich
(Bachelor of Business Administration program)
Robert Kiyosaki promotes an idea that “Many people start a business only to make money. Just to make money is not a strong enough mission.” For me, business is a tool to create a product or a service, that will improve people’s quality of life or make their lives more convenient. Some people will say, that it is almost impossible to change people’s lives, but “not everything you try can be done, but nothing can be done until you try.” And with this mindset, I am applying for the Bachelor of Business Administration programme at the Zurich campus of United International Business School (UIBS).
My goal in life is to be useful for people, to improve their lives, for me that is the ultimate success. I live in Nigeria, the country which is mostly not developed, where people don’t have a steady income or satisfactory quality of life: poverty, hunger, and unemployment are well-known and widely spread problems in the country. As a result of what I’ve seen and experienced, I have a strong idea of what I want to achieve.
Currently, the goal I try to reach is to start and develop my own international business in the middle east area and Africa, which will improve the economic situation of countries and, at the same time, improve lives of people in need. I want to collect the information from classes like “The European Business Environment”, “Asian Economic Development”, “European Economic Development”, and use the gained knowledge of European and Asian business and economic strategies and solutions, which have been studied for years, in the middle east and Africa to develop those countries and, therefore, to improve the quality of life there.
After doing some research into Nigerian universities and their business programmes, I realised that this country cannot offer me the education I need to achieve my goal. The level of specialisation here is quite poor and teaching methods are mostly oriented on theoretical knowledge which, in my opinion, is nearly useless when it comes to real-life work.
Looking at my future, I understand that the only way to be successful in today’s business world is to make it in an international context. Because UIBS is an international university with branches in different countries: Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, and Japan, a lot of students from all over the world transfer to different countries to study and, therefore, you provide an outstanding network of people from all over the world. I will be able to use this opportunity to create a bigger social network which will be very useful in a real business to solve complicated international problems. In UIBS, I will also learn how to communicate with people from different backgrounds to achieve the best working results which I believe will be the next big step in my development.
I understand that studying in a university abroad is going to be the most challenging step in my life so far, but because of studying for 9 months in New York on a “University Preparation” program at EF, I learnt a lot about high quality education, met a lot of people and cultures, gained important insights into such areas as global business and international affairs, that now I am positive that I can withstand any problems I will face and make the most of the knowledge and experience gained through this study programme. I hope to contribute my talents and efforts to your university and become a worthy member of the team.
The decision to apply to the branch of UIBS in Zurich is not a rush act, but rather a result of a thorough research among a wide variety of universities from all over the world in which not only was the quality of education process taken into consideration, but also opportunities for the personal growth and the quality of life in the city where each university is located.
First, UIBS provides a top notch education: BBA program in the branch of UIBS in Zurich received accreditations from the ACBSP and ECBE, which means that the education is recognized in the USA and Europe.
Second, studying at your university will significantly improve my English skills. As one of the most important languages in the world, English will help me to form new connections and expand my social network to a global level. The fact that the university is located in Zurich will allow me also to master my German skills and, as a result, knowing and fluently operating four languages: Arabic, French, English, and German will allow me to develop a better social and business network.
Thirdly, the BBA programme majoring in Global Business and minoring in Small Business Management will help me to develop myself as a team player and cultivate the leadership skills necessary for my future career. I will learn to be responsible not only for myself, but also for the whole team which is essential for a business manager.
Finally, Zurich is the top 12th best student city according to “QS Best Student Cities 2016”. Not only is it the largest city in Switzerland, it is also one of the wealthiest in Europe, which means that Zurich is clean, safe and immaculately maintained, frequently ranking among the world’s most livable cities.
In conclusion, I think that the harmonic combination of theoretical and practical knowledge that is provided in the BBA program at UIBS Zurich together with a unique international society of smart prospective students will give me the framework to utilize my full potentials both in studying in UIBS and in my personal business after the graduation.
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